


The Melancholy of Zero Kiryuu

by TheSnowyOwl



Category: Vampire Knight (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Anti-Kaname Kuran, Other, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-11-08 16:24:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17984582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSnowyOwl/pseuds/TheSnowyOwl





	The Melancholy of Zero Kiryuu

Whatever I did in life, a trail of regret would follow behind like a dark shadow.

It started from childhood, when Ichiru was young and the seeds of hatred weren’t yet planted in his heart. The shadow grew over the years up to today, as I stand before the cold coffin of ice holding a sleeping man. A man I hate more than ever, a man I’m grateful for in some twisted way all the same. 

Everything about that man oozed mystery and evil, but yet I’d trusted him to do the right thing. That, perhaps, was one of my biggest regrets. The scent of snow mingled with blood,  _her_  blood, was still fresh in my mind after all these years. My mind and my heart battled ferociously, clutching the Bloody Rose tightly in my hand to keep me grounded - to keep me safe. I felt anger, sadness, disgust in my head, while the pain of love throbbed in my chest.

I often think back to it now, my rational yet irrational mind blurring the lines between emotion and what I had believed was fact.

I did all I could to tie a mask around my heart, I separated the girl I loved from the woman in her place, letting her walk from me towards what I’d truly hoped, from the bottom of my heart and the back of my racing mind, was the best for her. 

How wrong I was.

Even now, she won’t talk about that year in depth. But I’ll never forget the first time I saw her again after that year. She was beautiful, mature, expensively dressed and wearing flowery perfume - perhaps to mask the intoxicating smell of her blood. However, she was thinner and paler, her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She spoke softer, less assertively than before, and walked in heels. This was that man’s image for her as a Kuran, as the Yuuki  _he’d_  wanted all along.

Though I’d told myself so many times that it was how it should be, that the Yuuki before was long dead, I knew that simply wasn’t true. The Yuuki was inside, chained in a deep dark forest, a forest that I’d let her walk deeper into because of my selfish prejudices.  _How could I? Why didn’t I steal her away, keep her safe and let her be free, love her the way she deserves to be loved - in the sunlight?_

As I look now at the coffin again, the man’s eyes closed and his breathing stilled completely, I’ve never felt happier to see him there. At times the anger flickers inside and I want to tear through the ice, leave him as a pile of shards on the ground.  _Unlike him, though, I know better._  

Feeling a gentle hand on my shoulder, I was roused from the brooding thoughts brewing like a storm cloud in my mind. I realised my expression was hard and cold, and relaxed as best I could. Yori met my gaze with an understanding smile. She felt the same as I did. That man may have fallen into slumber without regret for snatching Yuuki’s heartfelt smile away, without regret for the lives he ruined and the family of mine he left slaughtered, but he will  _never_  keep us broken - even as we stand picking up the pieces. 

 “Are you ready to meet her?”

I tried to smile, but the flurry of emotions inside churned my stomach and blocked my throat. I nodded instead, a simple enough gesture.

_If there was one thing Kaname Kuran really did right, it was doing his part to give Yuuki the gift that’d bring her back from the brink he’d left her at - a baby._

_Though the circumstances were not ideal at all, I just knew it would be a blessing in disguise, and I will do my damned best for the child. I will do my best just as I will for Yuuki._

_**I will never let myself make those mistakes again.** _


End file.
